Drivers not in top 35 in owners’ points to share track in qualifying
Quote selected text Published January 21st, 2008 in NASCAR News
Michael Waltrip suggested last season that drivers outside the top 35 in owners’ points should be allowed to qualify together so nobody would have an advantage in track conditions.
NASCAR officials must have listened.
The governing body kicked off its annual media tour by announcing that those outside the top 35 in all three series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series — will qualify at the end of their respective session.
As America’s No. 1 auto racing series heads into a new season, chairman Brian France said he wants the attention to return to the competition after several years of tweaks to the 60-year-old series.
“We want the focus to be on the best product in the world,” France said. “We want the story lines of the sport to be the focus.”
It also was announced that teams will be provided tires for testing at non-sanctioned NASCAR tests. Sprint Cup teams will be given 200 tires, Nationwide teams 160 and Craftsman Truck Series teams 120.
There will be a slight tweak to the pit road rules. Over-the-wall crews will be limited to three pit box lengths to push cars off of pit road. Outside tires removed can no longer be free rolled to the pit box wall.
Also, NASCAR will donate all driver fines to the NASCAR foundation as a part of the sport’s charitable initiative. The average year’s fines amount to about $200,000 while last year’s total was nearly $1 million.
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- Texas Nextel Cup qualifying cancelled due to weather
Fisha695 wrote:
Unless things have changed the top 35 rule is only Cup, Nationwide is 30 and CTS is 25.
I’m glad that NASCAR finally did something right. Qualify the outsiders at one session and then not one of them has an advantage. It’s about time.
yes but now at most tracks the GOGH’ers have an advantage over the locked in guys. Running at the end of the session often times means cooler conditions which means faster times, which means a greater chance to start up front. Now with the way NASCAR does it’s pitstall selection if the 8 GOGH cars end up qualifying in the first 8 spots that means they get to pick their pitstalls first, which means they get the 8 best stalls.
Personally I think Qualifying order should be done in reverse order of the point-standings, and Pitstalls should be done by point-Standings where if you are 1st in points you get the 1st stall, second gets the second stall and so on.
The outsiders could get screwed if it rains. I totally agree on the pit stalls. I think qualifying should include things like that instead of the selection process in place. What do you guys think about running 50 cars in the 50th Daytona 500? They started the first few 500’s with almost 70 cars each. Of course they were only doing about 140 mph at the time and there was no speed limit on pit road either. And 140 mph ain’t bad when you consider most of the equipment was primitive. That had to be freaking wild!!
Do they have 50 pitstalls ?
Who knows? They could figure something out if they really wanted to. I just wonder how they did it back then with those bigger, bulkier cars. And even with all the changes and improvements in this sport, don’t a couple of the tracks only have 41 or 42 pit stalls and some have to be shared? Bristol and maybe Martinsville?
Fisha695 wrote:
I agree about them having an advantage going last, but they also have something of a disadvantage going that late in the session if weather cancels qualifying or something. IMHO, all the GOGH’ers should run first, and if they all get a chance then the folks that make it are guaranteed a spot even if the top 35 qualifying gets rained out. That would protect anyone that makes it on time that is outside the top 40 or so, like a Boris Said, that might make it on time, only to have it taken away because the top 35 didn’t get through qualifying.
Let the GOGH’ers qualify first. Weather has always been a factor in some way or form. Fifty cars, Guest? It sounds cool, but I don’t know. I think we’re going too fast to have that many cars out there safely. Although they found more than 50 stalls for the first few 500’s, I think it would just be a nightmare to try that now. I’m worried about the collectibles for the 500. Ya gotta have the 50th Daytona 500 shirt. Cap. Jacket. Die cast. Just like we got hammered in 1998 for NASCAR’s 50th anniversary. Had to have that group of collectibles. (lol)
If they can get 50 drivers that can actually drive then it’d work.
Fisha695 wrote:
Excellent point! They have a hard enough time filling 43 seats with quality drivers… Where in the world will they come up with 7 more?
Derrike Cope? DJ? Lepage? Mike Wallace? Marlin? Texas Terry? Schrader? That’s 7. And 3 of them have won the 500. More filler than thriller. Jeff, you said quality. Sorry. This was all I could come up with at the moment.
Qualifying should be Qualifying no top 35 in points if you dont Qualif on time you dont race.